Forrrester Resarch Investigacion Travel Web

TeleconferenceWhat Frustrates Consumers About Web Travel Planning, And How Travel Companies Can Fix ItHenry H. HarteveldtVice President & Principal AnalystForrester Research

June 14, 2006. Call in at 12:55 pm Eastern Time

2Entire contents © 2006 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theme

A better online planning experience can help the

bottom line, too


How we know what we know

• Online survey fielded in March 2006 to Forrester Research’s in-house “Ultimate Consumer Panel”

» 2,468 responses — all leisure travelers

» Weighted to reflect US adult population

• Additional Forrester Research reports and data


US online leisure travelers average 4.4 trips/year

Base: US online leisure travelersSource: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey

57%

43% 1-3 leisuretrips/year

4+ leisuretrips/year


Regardless of trip frequency, two in three US online leisure travelers are socially/emotionally motivated

1-3 leisure trips/year

4+ leisure trips/year

Base: US online leisure travelersBase: US online leisure travelers

Source: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey

Entertainment48%

Career35%

Family17%

Entertainment46%

Family20%

Career34%


Travelers rely on the Web to bring order totravel-planning chaos

• Trip planning

• Staying within budget

• Sorting through the overabundance of brands, offers, products, and methods to buy travel


Researching and buying travel online: Good, not great

• Travel is a complex product

• Ample numbers of both frequent and infrequent travelers are frustrated with research and buying travel online

» Change/cancellation fees and policies

» Credit card security

» Privacy policies

• Travel companies have so focused on the “click to purchase” that we’ve forgotten what we need to do to get consumers to get comfortable and confident enough in the first place


The wide variety of trips that travelers take forces travel sites to offer mountains of different content

1%

4%

10%

15%

17%

15%

27%

33%

56%

1%

8%

22%

28%

40%

22%

44%

63%

81%

Honeymoon

Anniversary/second honeymoon

4+ day vacation to 3+ cities

Family reunions, weddings, special events, etc.

Unplanned, unbudgeted

Holiday-period travel

4+ day vacation to 1-2 cities

Weekend getaway

Visit friends/relatives

4+ leisure trips/year1-3 leisure trips/year

Base: US online leisure travelers (multiple responses accepted)Source: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey

“Which of the following types of leisure/personal trips did you take in the past 12 months?”

What is needed to convince a traveler to

“get up and go”?


Travelers look to the Web to get the “3 i’s” of travel: Ideas, inspiration, and information

7%

10%

20%

31%

50%

57%

57%

13%

16%

28%

37%

62%

67%

72%

Get information about health-relatedissues at a destination

Get information about travel safety

Get ideas about sampleitineraries/trips to take

Get ideas about when to visit adestination

Get ideas about where to visit

Get ideas about attractions/things todo

Get ideas about where to stay

4+ leisure trips/year1-3 leisure trips/year

“When researching or purchasing leisure/personal travel online, which of the following have you done in the past 12 months?”

Base: US online leisure travelers (multiple responses accepted)Source: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey


Agency and supplier sites can’t give bookers 100% of what they want to plan a trip, so they use other tools

• General search is used by 32% of bookers who take 1-3 leisure trips/year, and 44% of bookers who take 4+ leisure trips/year

• Special offer sites are used by 19% of bookers who take 4+ leisure trips/year

» 9% of bookers who take 1-3 trips/year

• Travel search (metasearch) is used by 15% of 4+ leisure trip bookers

» 9% for bookers who take 1-3 trips/year 1%

1%

4%

2%

11%

1%

4%

7%

5%

22%

Travel podcasts

Travel blogs

RSS (Real SimpleSyndication)

Travel communitysites

Emailnewsletters/alerts

4+ leisuretrips/year1-3 leisuretrips/year

Base: Sites/tools used by US leisure travel Bookers to research personal/leisure travel in past 12 months (multiple responses accepted)Source: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey


Travelers seek context in order to make informed purchase decisions

• In a highly entertainment-motivated society, the Web’s visual nature is perfect

» Images infuse life, context, and excitement for destinations, activities, and products

• Visual content drives purchase behavior» 35% of infrequent leisure travelers, and 40% of frequent

travelers, say pictures of a destination help decide where and whether to visit

» Even more use hotel/resort pictures to choose where to stay• Travelers want to know what’s available and what’s included

» A significant number of Web travelers go online to learn about what amenities a supplier offers and whether or not they’re included in the tariff/price


Social computing replaces Web travelers’ use of professional resources for travel information

• Destination reviews

• Hotel reviews

• Hotel ratings

• Social computing has significant impact

» Among travelers who used the Web to plan or book a hotel stay and consulted other traveler-written comments, 25% of infrequent travelers and 33% of frequent travelers changed their hotel stays because of what they read

Base: US online leisure travelers who used the Internet to plan or book a hotel staySource: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey


Online travelers still research high-touch products online and buy them offline

17%

31%

29%

34%

37%

27%

29%

31%

42%

42%

Package

Car rental

Airline flight

Hotel/motel

Cruise

Frequent, 4+ leisure tripsInfrequent, 1-3 leisure trips

Percentage that researched each product online and bought it offline:

Base: US online leisure travelers who purchased each type of productSource: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey


Infrequent and frequent leisure travelers cite different reasons for abandoning Web sites

Infrequent (1-3 trips/year)• Greater comfort, confidence

talking to a person• Wasn’t comfortable making a

non-refundable purchase online

• Wanted to pay for the product after using it, not before

Frequent (4+ trips/year)• Wanted to make a special

request that couldn’t be accommodated online

• Trip was too complex to buy online

• Wanted to buy a product not sold online

• Problems completing the purchase online

• Wanted to get someone else’s opinion before buying


Travelers seek assistance online

45%

42%

36%

32%

8%

39%

34%

31%

27%

9%

Looked up the customer service number on atravel company's Web site

Called a travel company's customer servicenumber

Used the Web site's "help" section/feature

Contacted a travel company by email

Contacted a travel company by instantmessenger or chat

Frequent traveler, 4+ leisure tripsInfrequent traveler, 1-3 leisure trips

Percentage of Bookers who did the following while researching or purchasing travel online:

Base: US online leisure Bookers (multiple responses accepted)Source: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey


Travelers seek help most in the planning phase

13%

27%

39%

23%

63%

49%

40%40%46%

While online planningyour trip

During the process ofmaking your purchase

After you made anonline purchase

Use the Web site's "help"section/feature

Look up the customerservice number on a travelcompany's Web siteCall a travel company'scustomer service number

Contacted the company byemail

Contacted the companyusing IM/chat

When in the purchasing process did you . . .

Base: US online leisure Bookers who did each type of activity in the past 12 monthsSource: Forrester’s NACTAS 2006 Q1 Ultimate Consumer Panel Travel Online Survey


How much content must a travel site offer?

Like Madonna, too much is never enough, and you need to evolve what you have


The 10 steps travel sites must take to improve the online planning experience (1 of 2)

1. Know your customers, their travel personas, and what types of trips they take

2. Make visual content prominent, and integrate it into the purchase process to aid in upselling and cross-selling

3. Integrate user-generated content into your site — and into PMS/CRS/GDS databases used by frontline staff and travel agencies

4. Rethink the way you present availability search results to provide useful context

5. Offer an internal keyword-based search engine — travelers are used to searching for things online


The 10 steps travel sites must take to improve the online planning experience (2 of 2)

6. Make sure access to your help section and links for click-to-call back and agent chat are prominent on descriptive pages as well as on transactional pages

7. Have the content that travelers need to go beyond the obvious. Use third-party content and tools that fill in gaps on your site where it doesn’t make sense to create it yourself

8. Let users store and retrieve information — and build on it, especially for complex products like packages and cruises

9. Use relevant, effective tools like RSS and podcasts so travelers can get the information they want

10. Employ technologies and applications like Ajax and “mash-ups” that support richer user experiences and let travelers maintain control of how they interact with your site


Mark your calendars

• Forrester’s Consumer Forum 2006: Humanizing the Digital Experience• October 24-25, 2006

» Palmer House Hilton, Chicago

• Conference Host: Christine Spivey Overby, Principal Analyst• Speakers include:

» James Skinner, Vice Chairman and CEO, McDonald’s» Roger C. Hochschild, President and COO, Discover Financial Services» Nicholas Negroponte, Co-Founder and Chairman, MIT Media Lab» Henry H. Harteveldt, Vice President, Forrester Research» Harley Manning, Vice President, Forrester Research

• More information available at www.forrester.com/consumerforum2006

http://www.forrester.com/consumerforum2006


Henry H. Harteveldt

+1 415/206-0889

[email protected]

www.forrester.com

Thank you

mailto:[email protected]

Forrrester Resarch Investigacion Travel Web

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